Status of Civil Rights in Texas. Volume III: A Report on the Status of Minority Group Members and Women in Public Employment and Public Education in Texas During 1977.

Minter, Mary D.

The Texas tradition of placing women and minorities in lower paying, less prestigious jobs without policy-making responsibility continued through the 1970s in the areas of public employment and public education. For all employment at all governmental levels in all regions and city sizes, minority members and women earned the lowest salaries. Prestigious, well paying, key decision-making jobs were almost exclusively the province of white/Anglo males. Where large minority concentrations existed, minority participation in key positions was enhanced but by no means assured. Public education reflected the trends of public employment in that there was an absence of minority members and women in key positions throughout the state system. Even when a minority group formed a majority of the local population, key administrative staff was not necessarily drawn from the minority. Superintendents were minority members only when a majority of the local school board were also minority members. Within the Texas Education Agency, 90% of the jobs with salaries over $25,000/year were held by men and 93% by white/Anglos, while 77.2% of the jobs with salaries under $10,000/year were held by Hispanic women. (SB)